Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757

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    In Pursuit of the Academic Deanship: Women's Considerations, Choice Environments, and Career Paths
    (2021) Templeton, Lindsey Lee; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Fewer women than men hold leadership roles in many fields, including higher education (Johnson, 2016). Despite changes in the demographics of college students (Lumina Foundation, 2015) and the traditional definitions of leadership (Kezar et al., 2006), the number of women declines as rank increases, starting at the role of full professor (Dominici et al., 2009; Johnson, 2016). The traditional path to the pinnacle of academic leadership – the role of the academic president – typically flows from faculty to department chair, dean to provost to president (Moore et al., 1983). Based on this pathway, the academic deanship is frequently viewed as a critical point in the path to academic leadership (Moore et al., 1983; Thrash, 2012; Wolverton & Gonzales, 2000). Yet little research actually examines individuals’ reasons for pursuing the deanship and women lack representation at this critical point in the pipeline (Almanac of Higher Education, 2014; Behr & Schneider, 2015). The purpose of this study is to understand how and why senior women faculty decide to pursue the academic deanship. Using a qualitative, collective case study and awareness of different aspects of identity, this study examines the choice processes for 12 women serving as deans at research-intensive institutions as they reflect on their decision to pursue the academic deanship. This research is framed by Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent et al., 1984), choice architecture (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008), and decision-making theories (March, 1994). Data collection included a two-step interview process and analysis of participant-generated narratives and visual depictions. Key findings suggest: 1) women choose to pursue the academic deanship in order to make an impact on their college, institution, or discipline; 2) the decision-making processes of women in pursuit of the academic deanship are shaped by their local choice environments, individual ambition, and prevailing assumptions; and 3) previous leadership experience is a critical component in women’s decisions to pursue the role of dean. Implications for research and practice are provided, including a need to systemically challenge the traditional path to academic leadership and to create space for women to lead at their home institution.
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    MOVING BEYOND COMMON PARADIGMS OF LEADERSHIP: UNDERSTANDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED LEADERSHIP IDENTITY
    (2017) Rocco, Melissa Lynn; Griffin, Kimberly A; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In both formal and informal ways, leadership is woven into the fabric of higher education. Developing students into leaders who meet the demands of an increasingly interconnected world is a message found in institutional mission statements, program objectives, and learning outcomes. As such, scholars highlight the need for using relational, process-oriented, and socially responsible leadership paradigms with college students (Dugan, Kodama, Correia, & Associates 2013; Dugan & Komives, 2010; Higher Education Research Institute, 1996). Yet, despite educator efforts, most college students maintain approaches consistent with leader-centric and hierarchical paradigms (Haber, 2012). In order to design interventions that broaden students’ leadership perspectives, educators must better understand how students develop their understanding and practice of leadership. The Leadership Identity Development (LID) Model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005, 2006) is a stage-based model demonstrating development toward interdependent notions of leadership, or, how a person moves beyond leader-centric paradigms toward more relational and process-oriented approaches. Though, research on what prompts development toward later stages of the model is limited, indicating the need for further exploration. The purpose of this study was to understand the factors and forces in educational experiences that contribute to advanced stages of leadership identity development. Case study methods were used to explore the experiences of seven participants with leadership identities consistent with the later stages of the LID Model. Participant narratives indicate leadership learning immersion programs, peer facilitation experiences, and academic courses as transformational. Within these experiences, experiential learning, developmental sequencing, and learning about relational leadership broadened participants’ leadership perspectives and practices. Participants with consistent engagement in leadership learning from adolescence through college developed advanced leadership identities earlier than other participants, and earlier than those in previous studies. In addition, aspects of social identity development influenced participants’ development toward later stages of the LID Model. Findings of this study suggest educators should focus on the value and timing of leadership learning in educational interventions throughout the lifespan, as well as the opportunity for students to cultivate leadership learning in others. Educators should also give further consideration to the interaction between social identity development and leadership identity development.
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    Principal and Teacher Reports of Principal Leadership: An Examination of Congruence and Predictive Validity
    (2015) Green, Meghan Rebecca Finney; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Principals influence school characteristics including morale and teacher turnover, but the utility of different methods of measuring principal behavior is unclear. Using data from public schools in the National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools, I examined relations between school-level teacher reports and principal self-reports of leadership, which better predicted student-reported rule clarity and fairness, and whether agreement or congruence between reports of principal leadership predicted school morale, organizational focus, and teacher turnover. The data used are from 263 schools and thousands of respondents; limitations of the study include the measures of principal leadership used, which are not strictly parallel and the age of the data used. I hypothesized that correlations between teacher and principal reports would be small and positive, that teacher reports of leadership would better predict rule clarity and fairness, and that congruence between reports would predict better school morale, better organizational focus, and lower teacher turnover.
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    Walking the Labyrinth: Examining the Intersection of Spirituality Among Senior Student Affairs Administrators
    (2013) Riera, Jose-Luis; Jones, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    As senior student affairs administrators (SSAAs) seek to lead effectively in higher education, some SSAAs consider spiritual resources to enhance leadership practice. Yet, empirical literature on the intersection of spirituality and leadership in higher education is relatively absent and needs to be deepened and broadened. The purpose of this study was to examine the intersection of spirituality and leadership among SSAAs. Guided by a constructivist epistemology, this grounded theory included the following research questions: (1) what can be learned about how spirituality influences the leadership practices of SSAAs when the intersection of spiritual and leadership development is considered; (2) what are the critical influences on the process by which spirituality informs the leadership practices of SSAAs; (3) how, if at all, do the spiritually-guided leadership practices of the SSAAs in this study influence the organizational environments of their institutions; (4) how, if at all, are the spiritually-guided and value-laden leadership practices of the SSAAs in this study challenged by the socio-cultural environment of the academy pertaining to values, spirituality, and religiosity? Data sources included two interviews with a sample of 14 SSAAs. The grounded theory, Walking the Labyrinth: The Process of Leading with a Spiritual Orientation among Senior Student Affairs Administrators, emerged from the data analysis. One core category and four key categories emerged from data analysis. The core category, leading with a spiritual orientation, describes the pervasive nature of spirituality within the leadership process, and the relationships between spirituality, values, and leadership, which form a "core" that facilitates congruency in decision-making for spiritually-oriented SSAAs. The first key category, sustaining a spiritual outlook, describes how spiritually-oriented SSAAs develop a spiritual outlook on life and apply this outlook to their leadership. The next two key categories describe characteristics of leading with a spiritual orientation: catalyzing spirituality to maximize leadership capacity and prioritizing people in leadership practice. The last key category, "managing your identity": navigating the academy's socio-cultural environment describes the context for the process of leading with a spiritual orientation. This grounded theory has implications for future research and theory development, for SSAAs, and for student affairs practice.
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    A Case Analysis of a Model Program for the Leadership Development of Women Faculty and Staff Seeking to Advance Their Careers in Higher Education
    (2011) Calizo, Lee Scherer Hawthorne; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this case study was to explore a model of leadership development for women faculty and staff in higher education. This study is significant because it explored the only identified campus-based program open to both faculty and staff. The campus-based Women's Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) program at the University of Cincinnati evolved over a few years and became a regionally-based program subsequently called the Higher Education Collaborative (HEC). These two programs at the University of Cincinnati served as the foci of this case study research. Using methods consistent with case study research, I interviewed six past participants of the programs (three from each), plus the program coordinator, and several other campus administrators. Document reviews were conducted on marketing materials, progress reports, websites, budgets, status of women reports, and other documents found in university archives. A focus group was conducted with the primary informants of the study as a way to check identified themes with the participants. Findings suggest that elements of the leadership development programs did have influence on the participants in terms of their leadership self-efficacy, career aspirations and career paths. A comparison of the WILD and HEC programs suggest that the regionally-based HEC provided a solid opportunity for skill development and training, while the campus-based WILD program excelled at providing opportunities for participants to develop meaningful relationships and gain insights into the operations of the University. Participants in the HEC program engaged in the experience to learn about ways to advance in their careers, unlike the women in WILD who participated in order to be better in their current positions. WILD alumnae had changed positions, taking on more responsibilities and in some cases higher ranking titles since participating in the program. It was too soon to tell the career path implications for the HEC participants. Other universities wishing to create a pipeline for women to advance into leadership can learn from the University of Cincinnati. Elements of both the WILD and HEC programs serve as valuable models for creating effective leadership development opportunities for women. Making sure women understand the purpose of an all-women experience is an important component that was missing from the UC programs.
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    A Grounded Theory of Lesbian and Gay Leadership Self-Efficacy Development
    (2011) Ostick, Daniel Townsend; Komives, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of gay and lesbian college students engaged in leadership and the meaning they made of their leadership self-efficacy development, particularly as it related to their identity development and various environmental assisters and constraints. The study sought to identity what shaped the development of leadership self-efficacy for these students and generated additional questions for future research. Using Grounded Theory Methodology, this study explored the primary research question: How do gay and lesbian college students engaged in leadership develop their leadership self-efficacy? Three interviews were held each with 10 students who self-identified as gay, lesbian, queer, or sexually fluid who were highly involved in leadership activities on campus. The theory that emerged from the participants' experiences centered on the individual's self-efficacy to engage in leadership defined within the context of their beliefs about the nature of leadership engagement. The self-efficacy of the students was enhanced by support, success, and deep and broad involvement and was diminished by failure and active criticism. The students‟ gay, lesbian, or queer identities served to either improve self-efficacy or leadership or had no demonstrable effect, according to the participants‟ stories. Sexual orientation served to improve self-efficacy for engagement in leadership by broadening perspectives, improving relationships and comfort within groups, allowing the participants to bring their full selves to their experiences, creating empathy and understanding, and improving personal awareness. Participants also shared that their identities were integral to their involvements, that being out increased their overall self-confidence, that greater comfort led to greater involvement, and that visibility and voice was important to their leadership self-efficacy. Students also shared that their sexual orientation did not have an appreciable effect on their leadership self-efficacy when they already had a great deal of confidence to engage in leadership, when they had already integrated their sexual orientations, when situations did not relate to their sexual orientations, or when the saliency of their sexual orientations was lower than other aspects of their personality.
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    EXPLORING LEADERSHIP AMONG DEAF COLLEGE STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY AT A POPULATION SERVING INSTITUTION AND PREDOMINANTLY HEARING INSTITUTIONS
    (2007-08-09) Slife, Nathan Matthew; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis examined the influence of deaf student experiences at a deaf serving institution versus predominantly hearing institutions on leadership outcomes. This study utilized the I-E-O Model and the Social Change Model of Leadership. Data were collected from a random sample of 365 undergraduates at Gallaudet University and 216 undergraduates nationally through the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. The study was administered over the web utilizing the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale-Revised2. Data were analyzed using a two way multivariate analysis of variance examining institutional serving type and gender differences on outcomes and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis examining input and environmental variables on a specified outcome. Participants at hearing serving institutions scored significantly higher than participants at a deaf serving institution on the outcomes of Congruence, Commitment, and Controversy with Civility. The variable accounting for the most variance in the outcome measure of Controversy with Civility was discussions of socio-cultural issues.
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    Cocurricular Involvement, Formal Leadership Roles, and Leadership Education: Experiences Predicting College Student Socially Responsible Leadership Outcomes
    (2006-05-31) Haber, Paige; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis explored gender differences in socially responsible leadership outcomes and the extent to which cocurricular involvement, holding formal leadership roles, and participating in leadership programs contributed to these outcomes. This study utilized the Input-Environment-Outcome model and the social change model. Data was collected from a random sample of 3410 undergraduates at the University of Maryland through the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Participants completed a web-based survey that included the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale-Revised2. Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance to identify outcome gender differences and hierarchical multiple regression to identify the extent to which environmental variables of this study contributed to outcomes. Women scored significantly higher than men in five of eight outcome measures. Each environmental variable emerged as significant for at least one outcome, and involvement in student organizations was the most common environmental variable. Results from this study provide implications for practice and future research.